Work in progress

I haven't posted here for a while. Amusingly this is not due to lack of me writing but more because every time I tried to upload the articles it failed. Probably because of the bad connection. Now I'm hoping that at least this short article will make it through until I'll resolve the problem.

Kinloch Lodge

I had planned to go out at to party at least one night, for the in depth Queenstown experience. However in the end I couldn't be bothered, sleeping is just too awesome. I then headed off in the direction of paradise. There were a lot of of tracks I wanted to do in that area.

My first ride was an Australian expat. He worked in all the adrenaline related tourism activities, at the time in canyoning and said his job was a joke, pure fun. He was on his way to a fishing spot and left me in Glenorchy("gateway to paradise"). Back in Invercargill a crazy religious nut German woman told me the Kinloch Lodge was awesome. It was pricey too, but I thought if it's really that nice, I'll afford the luxury. So I hitched another ride with an old British couple on the way to a campground. This campground was conveniently located right next to the lodge.

The lodge had advertised that they sold trampers supplies. However when I asked they didn't really have much decent food. In the end I only bought a pack of deep frozen toast for 6$ that was going to be my breakfast along with the jar of peanut butter I had brought.
For dinner I ate at their expensive restaurant. I also joined the yha to get the "free" WiFi, thinking that it might pay off one day.
The next day I got up late and the Japanese guy who had the plan as I had and a car, had already left. Just like everyone else. Oh well tomorrow I thought. So instead I checked out the immediate surroundings and studied the wall maps for tracks. I saw that in theory I could walk up to the start of the Routeburn.
In the evening I tried the spa pool.. it definitely stunk, with the water having a greenish colour. I thought that probably must be super healthy, so I endured it for half an hour, then shower and bed.

Same thing, I got up late but this time decided to try and get to the routeburn. After a bit of walking a car passed, and somehow I just didn't feel like hitching, so just walked on. After leaving the protection of the trees I found myself in the middle of a silt storm. I continued down the road and put on Sun glasses to protect my eyes..just not from the sun. After walking against the storm for a while I saw a track sign and thought: " It goes into the forest. Forest means protection from storm".
The decision was made I started the glacier burn track. Some cars were parked there and the first hurdle was a small stream. I saw two girls who were just walking through. I smugly sandalized the river and walked past them. They told me there was another guy ahead. The girls were Israelis from the accent.

I was in the forest just a few moments later and after a few more minutes passed an old man. I kept walking until I passed the tree line. I looked up the snowy saddle and was quite tempted to climb up in the snow. Instead however I stopped about halfway between tree and snow line, then turned around and sat down to watch the storm from above. I sat there for a small eternity, thinking. I thought it was time to write an article titled broken.

Then I slowly headed down to encounter the Israeli girls again. They told me the old man had told them some guy had "run" past him. So we chatted a bit until I left them behind. I never met the old man again.
When I was back at the road the storm had settled a bit but I still was covered in dust when I was back at the hostel.
The next day I decided to head back to glenorchy to get some food. A woman who was having breakfast at the same time as I gave me a lift.

Queenstown to the sounds

I met many people in Queenstown who took the bus tour to Milford sound or were wondering if they ought to do it. I would avoid that if possible.

Should you decide to go for this option you'll spend most of your day in the bus, to then spend 2 or 3 hours on the cruise.
Then however most people who went enjoyed the cruise and the pictures I saw did look really nice. At this time the cheapest option is about 120$ for bus + cruise.

If you have the time and interest to travel south base yourself in Te Anau or even one of the accommodation options right there in Milford, so you could easily get the cheap cruises - the early morning ones.

Also if you have the money consider going to doubtful sound instead of Milford.

Getting by a little cheaper in Queenstown

Of course all the regular ways of getting by cheap apply, but since I'm still here I'll write down some specific tips. Also if anybody has some tips I'll update this.

Accommodation:

If you have a tent, try asking at some of the hostels, their tent sites are cheaper than the ones of the holiday parks and you probably don't have to pay extra for using pans or pots. The bumbles as an example has a tent site for 20$.

If you don't then there is a motel offering backpacker accommodation starting at 22$ which isn't member of either BBH or YHA and with that price it's cheaper than most bbh as well. It can be found close to the aforementioned hostel.

Supermarkets:
There is a "fresh choice" in gorge road which is a little cheaper than the centric "alpine supermarket"(which is a four square actually). If you have a bike or car you can also go to the new world supermarket in Frankton.

That's it, not much, but hopefully that will help someone a little.

Queenstown: first impressions

So the new hostel is actually worse. I am in a 4 bed room which is hardly big enough for two beds. There is hardly any space left to leave the luggage on the floor. I don't want to imagine the drunk entries at night. At least two other guests(in the same room) seem heavy drinkers. The hostel is accommodating more people than it should, given its size. Accordingly the kitchen is a mess.

The DOC visit, proved fruitless, there doesn't seem to be much in terms of walking directly around here, except short walks. The supermarkets here even more expensive here and the town really seems to be a den for drunkards. Everywhere people with hangover. I was thinking of staying for a while, but I am currently thinking it may be too boring and  expensive . The only thing to do here really seems to be to get drunk or waste loads on silly adrenaline kicks.

To Queenstown

After doing another 2 day trip at lake Manapouri (this time it was designed to be one too and I wasn't alone for a change), I finally worked up the motivation to leave te anau. The hitchhiking worked out quite neatly this time. I only waited for like half an hour at a place which was surprisingly invested with sand flies.. a couple of a Spanish guy and a French girl both living in Australia picked me up and took me for quite some way, then I was picked up by a Dutch couple driving with a campervan who brought me all the way to Queenstown, even though they don't like the place. It seems people either love the place or hate it. I reckon the people who party their brains out love it..
Then I had to try a few hostels to find a place to sleep although I booked two more in the first place I was at, because they had space the day after.
Now I survived the first night with drunk people on the street at night, hoping sleep will be easier at this other hostel. Next I'll probably check with the doc which tracks are available around here.

Kepler track in 2 days

So I decided to do the Kepler track in 2 days. It actually was a nice track with some really nice views. Very easy to walk and I was usually more than twice as fast as the times given even though I talked to most people I met and did all the side trips. Must have been the lighter load.

There are even possibilities of getting around the use of the expensive great walk huts(there is a standard d.o.c. hut near one of the gw huts for example). I stayed at an expensive great walk campsite though and of course was taken apart by the sand flies (obviously I had forgotten to bring the repellent). Apart from that it's a really nice track though.

I followed the standard itinerary so my first day was uphill to luxmore hut, which is a really nice hut with good views. I left my backpack there for a short excursion to the cave. I went in a bit, but the way is blocked at some point and for longer trips you are supposed to get permission. The cave is being dug out by a little river.
I then returned to the hut to get my backpack and went on my way. After a short uphill section there is the option to go for the
summit of mount luxmore, which I did and spent about an hour there having lunch with almost no wind going and enjoying the view. Then I followed the track again with some very windy parts. I stopped for chats at both shelters. Then I made my way down to the iris burn campsite with the way down dragging on quite a bit.

Finally at the campsite I picked a not so nice spot for the tent in the forest as there were supposed to be fewer sand flies and I was warned that the other spots that were left would be the ones where the smoke from the fireplace was going. Alas the amount of sand flies was still vile.

Three Britons made a fire and after trying out the outdoor meal I bought and chatting with an Aussie family I sat down with them. They were outdoor teachers and invited to a game of pasta pigs (and to a cup of tea in the morning).

The night was really cold (as I learned later temperature apparently went below zero), too cold for my summer sleeping bag, even with the newly acquired silk liner, so I put on my shirt...and then the recently acquired fleece jacket that kinda helped and I found some rest.

In the morning I didn't want to get up due to the cold at first but then decided that it was better to arrive early since it was supposed to rain in the afternoon.
So I got up started to pack everything in the tent then left the tent to get the promised morning tea. After the breakfast I took down the rest of the tent, or at least I wanted to. The floor of the inner was slightly wet so I leaned it against a table so it could dry. I said goodbye to everyone (people started to leave) and then left everything at the site to go for the waterfall. I arrived there when it was hit by the first sunlight. When I returned to site the floor still hadn't completely dried, but it was 10am already and the rain in the afternoon would make sure it would get really wet, so I packed up and left. I caught up with the last people who left fairly quickly at some point met a Danish couple who I met the day before, doing the track in the other direction and finally caught up with the Britons. They offered me a ride back to te anau from the car park saving me quite some distance, so I took them up on that offer.

Now I am back to te anau relaxing and thinking of life and the next steps, not having a data connection sure makes things a bit complicated.

The last ride

So I thought the dairy farmer was my last ride, but either I misunderstood or he changed his mind, when he suddenly was sorry but reeeeeally had to smoke a joint. He left me in a village called Mossburn. It seemed all the people who took me were potheads and ex hitchhikers.

The wait wasn't too bad in Mossburn and this time the guy who took me was not a pothead(but still a hitchhiker). In fact he told me he wouldn't like smokers. He is a bus driver and I never really understood his name. He told me about all the people he didn't like in his bus and that he used to be a skipper. In the end he offered me to take me for free in his bus if there was space and let me out at cafe Hollyford in Te Anau.

Now I am still in Te Anau not really having done much. Everyone here books one of the super expensive tours in Fjordland. The famous Milford sound one or the slightly less famous but way more beautiful Doubtful sound one. I think I won't do the latter one because 250 NZ$ is just a tad insane for sitting around on a boat. There actually is a hike in that area, but apparently people regularly get into trouble around there and wading through water and mud seems to be the rule and I really don't want more of that for now. (Also the DOC people would probably be really unhappy if I was to go there alone...)
Unfortunately there don't seem to be any real daywalking opportunities around here.

The only track around here is the overbooked Kepler track. I am considering to do it in 2 days(if I can get a spot in one of the overpriced/overbooked huts). I met a German guy who did it in one day which doesn't seem appealing to me at all as that would be pushing it the whole day and since there may be snow now this might be a tad bit of torture in sandals. (Unfortunately my feet still haven't recovered from the track on Stewart island). Oh well I might attempt that anyway, at least I wouldn't be carrying a heavy peak, just a day pack. I guess I could unpack my other pair of vibram five fingers I suppose they wouldn't slow me down as much as my sandals(I am seriously starting to consider getting a pair of these sandal-shoe hybrid things) in unfavorable conditions.

On the way to Te Anau

I left Invercargill and it's unstable weather behind. It was raining for 10 minutes and then the sun came out for ten minutes etc. I decided to try hitchhiking. So I went to the border of the city at SH6. After waiting the for an hour at least. Corey a seasoned hitchhiker stopped for me an took me part of the way since he was heading to work. Then I waited at the exit of Winton and the weather was terrible after a little more than an hour of waiting Shay the dairy farmer stopped and told me he'd drive me to te anau, but he'd stop at a friend's house for a while. That is where I am now, waiting and thinking if hitchhiking is something I'll keep on doing or rather not.

Back to civilization

I had a written something for the first five days of the trip updated every day. Then I stopped writing down in the evenings and when I wanted to finally write down the rest, the app crashed and now the article is in an eternal state of saving, inaccessible. I won't rewrite and so my trip will have to largely remain a mystery. Let's just say I had a lot of mud and rain. I didn't stay in bluff on my way back to go for some hikes around there either, because the weather seemed to start mostly bad, except for the next day. So instead I went back to Invercargill to recharge and heal up for the next madness.

Well here are a few summary sentences: I stayed in a really nice backpackers on Stewart island called bunkers backpackers on my last days on the island and got some awesome but expensive smoked salmon from there. Before that I went on a 10 day hike in the wilderness.